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Thursday, September 6, 2012

Brandon Peters dissects the 007 series part 11: Moonraker

With Skyfall dropping in theaters in just a few months, along with the 50th anniversary of the James Bond series, a close friend and fellow film nerd, Brandon Peters, has generously offered to do a comprehensive review of the entire 007 film franchise. Today is the eleventh entry, with a full review of one of the most underrated films in the franchise, Moonraker. I hope you enjoy what is a pretty massive feature leading up the November 9th release of Skyfall. I'll do my best to leave my two-cents out of it, give or take a few items I have up my sleeve (including a possible guest review from my wife as she sings the praises of her favorite 007 film, you won't believe what it is). But just because I'm stepping aside doesn't mean you should. Without further ado...

Moonraker

1979

Director: Lewis Gilbert

Starring: Roger Moore, Lois Chiles, Michael Lonsdale,
Richard Kiel

Rated PG

Well, here’s to us.

~ Jaws ?!?!?!

Kills: 16 + 1 Boa
Constrictor

Girls: Holly Goodhead
(take a drink every time they say her name before you even are introduced to
the character), Corrine Dufour, Manuela

Cars: Inflatable
Gondola

Locales: California,
Venice, Rio de Janeiro, OUTER FRICKIN’ SPACE

Odd Villain Trait:
Jaws (see Who Loved Me, Spy), Chang is…Asian?

Song: “Moonraker”
performed by Shirley Bassey

Since Star Wars
did “ok” at the box office, we’re now on to the much maligned Moonraker. There was a sci-fi surge in the late 70s and
of course the 007 franchise jumped on it.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone, but for some reason this
film still gets flack for going this route.
The 70s Bond had already visited the kung fu and blaxploitation
genres. I remind you the series began as
wanting to be Hitchcock infused films.
So I ask, why not try science fiction?
The 007 series certainly features outlandish gadgets and villain bases
so it seems even more sci fi fitting than blaxploitation and kung fu. Whether it works or not is beside the point
of discussion, Moonraker should not be
discounted for the fact that it and other major studios decided to venture into
sci fi. Did we discredit Sony’s Spider-Man coming in the wake of Fox’s X-Men?

If there’s any film Moonraker
should be accused of ripping off, it’s The
Spy Who Loved Me. The plot basically
has Hugo Drax taking Stromberg’s underwater ideals and putting them into space
with a touch here or there. The story
shares a lot of the same beats and character developments as SPY. Basically, Hugo Drax has Noah’s ark in
space. He hopes to destroy human life on
Earth and repopulate it with his hand-picked master race of people living in
the space station until Earth is habitable again.

The opening teaser/stunt is perhaps my favorite in the
entire Bond-verse. Allowing he and two
of his henchman to be kidnapped and put on a plane, Bane is able to abduct
Dr…wait. Sorry all this talk about rip
offs got me carried away. After a space
shuttle is stolen (last time it was submarines, check), we shift to an airplane
with Bond on board. He is left to die
without a parachute and gets into a sky jumping battle for a parachute with his
attacker. Jaws returns in this sequence
to cause havoc in the sky, but Bond escapes.
While some stuntmen are a bit noticeable, it doesn’t take away from this
breathtaking spectacle. Last time, Bond
was grounded and took to air to escape.
This time he was aerial looking to get grounded.

007 in this film came off a tad of a smart ass right off the
bat in this one. It doesn’t last, but in
the beginning he’s quite a sarcastic fellow.
The interesting bit about this entry, before the film goes to space, is
that it feels like Bond is by himself for most of it. He gets together with M and Goodhead here and
there, but it’s never for long before he’s back to being on his own. He’s constantly on the move traveling to
different locales. I know we’ve seen
Bond in many films before this on his own stealth missions, but this is the
only film so far to feel that way. It’s
on Roger Moore’s shoulders to carry ¾ of the film and he does it quite
well. With him on his own for most of
it, the danger and threat level feels a little higher and a bit more serious.

Before Moonraker
goes lunar, it’s a surprisingly dark Bond entry. Lewis Gilbert returns for a final time to
direct. He delivers a film that’s
different in look and a more serious feel (kind of gave me tiny vibes of Solaris). While the plot beats are reminiscent of The Spy Who Loved Me, its tone is not. It’s much darker. The scene in which Bond’s first fling, Corinne
Dufour, is disposed of is outright disturbing.
The score also supports this dark mood as well. Hugo Drax, the film’s villain turns his
vicious dogs on her through the woods by his mansion. I don’t know if I’ve felt this bad for the
death of a Bond girl (and killing one of them has been a common occurrence
since Goldfinger).

Speaking of Drax, he’s much creepier than Stromberg. This actor has a great voice too. He would have been perfect for film
trailers. This is definitely one of the
top performances of a villain in the series.
The main Bond Girl, Holly Goodhead, serves as a much more serious
approach to Agent XXX from The Spy Who
Loved Me. She’s a rival agent in the
CIA and is always a couple steps ahead of Bond.
She also gets kidnapped just before the end of the second act. The film plays pretty grim and dark for the
first 3/4, and anything its borrowing from the prior film is done with a much
more serious approach.

Jaws returns to us in Moonraker. However, where he ends up is one of the
biggest complaints of the film. He does
get a rather terrifying scene in an alleyway in Rio. He’s up to his old hijinks and all is
well. But then, he falls in love, takes
his girlfriend to space, becomes a good guy aiding 007, then pops open
champagne and…GASP…he SPEAKS! First off,
I’m not going to defend where they went with this direction on the character. I will say, this could have been done in a
better and easier to stomach fashion.
First, had Jaws met his girlfriend at the end of the cable car sequence
and it was just a comedic tag to end it and she never came back (like most
action sequences involving the character), I wouldn’t have a problem. Also, in space, when Jaw flips sides and
helps Bond out, what other decision was there to make? Let Drax kill you due to your
imperfections? Maybe he didn’t need to
completely aid 007, but make it his own agenda.
They did go the wrong way about this and made it embarrassing. Lewis Gilbert kept getting fan mail from
children wanting Jaws to be a good guy and fight along James Bond. Well, he caved, and that’s what we got. The disdain for this is surely deserved.

The big turning point of this film is the final 32 minutes,
when James Bond and Holly Goodhead take to a space station to stop Hugo Drax
from poisoning the earth in order to later repopulate it with his master
race. I’m fine with it. It’s part of the story. They want to go to space – ok. How did they do? It was “serviceable” at best. The effects here are certainly nowhere near
its rival sci-fi films of the time (Star
Wars, Alien). They are closer to Logan’s Run if anything (though a bit better). The special effects were nowhere near as bad
as I remember them. You can pick out
action figures here and there, yes. It
doesn’t completely distract from the story at hand. It’s basically another battle like the
volcano base or the battleship, just this time with astronauts and lasers
instead of ninjas/soldiers and machine guns.
If you can recognize that, then you’re going to be fine. They wanted to go bigger and outdo the previous
one and this is where they went. Bond
and Goodhead escape the space station and recreate the Death Star trench battle
going after Drax’s bombs above the atmosphere.
When done, they decide that they just can’t wait to Bone Another Day and
are caught by the government camera. The
minister of defense asks “What is he doing?” to which Q responds with “I
believe he’s attempting reentry”.

I must mention while its Gilbert’s last directing effort and
Shirley Bassey’s final song contribution to the series, this is our final film
with Bernard Lee as M. Lee passed away
during production of the next Bond film, For
Your Eyes Only. His passing was
before he filmed any of his scenes. Out
of respect, the character of M was written out of the film. Lee’s M was an iconic presence in the 007
universe. In fact, none would stand out
again until Judi Dench took the helm in Goldeneye. I really enjoy that in his final film he’s
given ample screen time and you a good couple scenes where M and 007 are able
to show a relationship slightly closer than a professional one.

I’m pleasantly surprised coming off this entry in the
retrospective. Moonraker proved to be far more than its reputation suggests. It
may be borrowing its skeleton from Spy
Who Loved Me, but I loved that one, so I can’t complain there. 75% of this film really is a damn good Bond entry
and offers a level of dark storytelling not yet seen in the series. The final act of the film is where people jump
off the ride. You’re either going to go
with it or turn on it. I’m of the
former. It’s still entertaining. The best stuff clearly came early on in the
film, but space is just getting us to the end.
While I think Moonraker and The Spy Who Love Me would make for a
good double feature night, I also think it would make for a bad one. Watching them back to back it was easy to
pick up every instance of Moonraker
recreating beats and points from The Spy
Who Loved Me. Pretty much all Moonraker’s action pieces are unique,
though. But, distancing your viewing
from the prior entry, I don’t think it’d be as noticeable if even at all. Moonraker
is a good time. I recommend giving this
one another shot for anyone who didn’t care for it when they were younger or only
saw it once long ago.

Because it is possible to re-edit essays after they have been posted, please feel free to alert me to any typos, grammar issues, and questions of factual accuracy, preferably by email and not in the comments section. And, also, since I often embed video clips, please let me know if any said clips are no longer functioning. Thanks.

About Me

The basics - 31 years old, married with two children, currently residing in Woodland Hills, CA. I am simply a longtime film critic and pundit of sorts, especially in the realm of box office. The main content will be film reviews, trailer reviews, essays, and box office analysis and comparison. I also syndicate myself at The Huffington Post, Valley Scene Magazine, and Open Salon.
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